Into The Void
by PuttingQuillOnParchment
Summary: How Kopa died.


Immersed in my own fantasies of playing and laughing with my friends, I absent-mindedly watched Zazu babble on about some royal protocol while Dad listened intently to him.

"... which means, sire, that it would be going against the law laid down by King Mufasa to order the buffaloes from straying into the north of the grasslands ..."

Zazu must have noticed that I wasn't paying attention, because he waved his wing at me. "Young Prince, pay attention. You will find this information useful to you when you are ruling this kingdom."

I rolled my eyes. I wasn't going to worry about growing up and ruling the kingdom - I wanted to have some fun while I was still a cub! "Dad," I implored, "can I please go out and play? _Please?_"

"Well, son ..." Dad hesitated.

"Pretty please with a juicy antelope on top?" I gave him my best puppy-dog face. "I'll stay with Kwaheri and Jambo and I won't wander off!" I promised.

Dad thought for a moment. "All right, then. You can go. But remember your promise!"

"Yeah, yeah," I replied hurriedly, waving my paw back and forth as if to wave Dad's instructions away. I shot him my signature hellion grin, then dashed off in search of my monkey friends. When I reached the long grasses that marked the beginning of the vast grassland, I made a sharp turn to the right and raced towards a small forest. It was where my monkey friends, Jambo and Kwaheri, lived along with the rest of their family and other monkeys.

When I reached the small bushes lining the edge of the forest, my eyes roved around and I soon spotted a familiar clump of two bushes growing close together. There was a small hole between them. Jambo, Kwaheri and I always went through this hole whenever we wanted to enter or exit the forest. I ducked down and crawled into the hole, wriggling forward on my tummy. The soft, leaf-strewn ground tickled my stomach. I emerged from the bushes on the other side of the forest, breathing in the fresh smell of bark.

I could locate my best friends' home in the trees blindfolded. Not really thinking about anything in particular but rather enjoying the greenery the forest provided, I ambled along in a north-east direction, vaguely registering a nagging feeling at the back of my mind. I, being the playful, adventurous yet idiotic I was, ignored it and finally reached a cluster of trees grouped tightly together.

My eyes darted across the canopy of the oaks and I soon spotted my best friends. "Kwaheri! Jambo!" I called. "Over here!" They were picking each other's hair for lice - a natural, instinctive habit. When they heard me, they whipped around and began swinging along various branches with their long tails in order to reach me.

Jambo arrived two seconds before Kwaheri. He was kind of small and skinny for his age, but he had long limbs and could climb thirty-metre-high trees quicker than I could say "Hakuna Matata" (that was something Timon and Pumbaa, my fun-loving yet sort of careless baby-sitters taught me). Jambo's fur was chocolate-brown in colour, if you didn't count the dusky-brown in his forehead. I tried to remember the word Mom used when she was talking about Jambo's hands and feet ... what was it? Oh yeah, a "light beige". His chest was grey and he had orange-brown eyes.

"Howdy, pussy cat!" he greeted me, smirking.

Just then Kwaheri landed on the ground lightly. He looked exactly like Jambo, only his fur was a shade lighter. "Hey, goofball!"

I rolled my eyes. My monkey friends were always teasing me. In a good way, of course.

"Hey, Jambo. Hey, Kwaheri!" Without further ado, I announced, "Let's play Hide-and-Seek!"

"All right, who's turn is it?" Kwaheri asked, grinning. I knew for a fact that he _lived_ for Hide-and-Seek.

"Let's see ..." I tapped my paw over my nose - something I was in the habit of doing whenever I was thinking. "It was Kwaheri's turn yesterday ... then my turn ... then I caught Jambo, but Pumbaa and Timon came to tell me that it was nearing my bedtime ..." I grinned at Jambo. "It's your turn, buddy."

"All right!" Jambo turned around and leaned his face against the trunk of a tree. "I'm going to count to a hundred ... then I'll come and find you!" He started counting. "One ... two ... three ..."

I ran in towards the eastern side of the forest, where I knew Jambo's grandparents lived. There were ever so many hiding places near their home. Kwaheri came along with me for a few minutes, then changed direction and headed into the western part of the forest. He'd told me lots of times that his aunt, uncle and cousins lived there and their home offered lots of secretive places.

I ran forward until my legs could run no more. I looked up: I had reached Jambo's grandparents' home, but they were not there. Figuring that they had gone to visit their relatives or something, I sat down to rest, taking in the wide trees on my right. They were long, slender birches which looked delicate and fragile but in reality were very strong, a fact I had come to discover as a result of my long hours of climbing.

In two minutes, I got up again. Jambo must have counted to a hundred by now and was probably searching for Kwaheri and me. Getting up, I decided to go further ahead. I really didn't want to become It.

Suddenly my ears pricked up. I gazed ahead of me, entranced: a wonderful noise met my ears, a mixture of gushing and gurgling. I ran forward as quickly as I could. The forest was getting thinner and thinner by the minute, until at last I reached a rocky cliff. Flowing down the length of this cliff was a magnificent waterfall. There were lots of other cliffs around here, all equally massive. I was puzzled, because I'd never seen this waterfall or these cliffs or this area before. It must be some place Dad didn't want me to go, because he had shown me almost the whole of the kingdom.

I suddenly remembered my promise to Dad. I had assured him that I wouldn't wander far away. So, trying to ignore the melancholy feeling inside me, I turned around to go back.

I was met with a chuckle that sounded too treacherous for me to be comfortable around.

I gasped. Slowly pacing towards me was a menacing-looking lioness. I racked my brains - where had I seen her before? - before the answer popped into my mind. She was Zira, a lioness who Mom and Dad knew but were wary of. I was close friends with her daughter, Vitani.

"Uh ..." I gulped. "Good morning, Z-Zira."

She inched closer and closer to me. The sun beat down on both of us and made her tannish-brown fur sparkle formidably. "Well, well, well, if it isn't Prince Kopa." She arranged her features into a nasty smile. Something told me that she had not come upon me by accident here ... She must have been the one who was giving me that uneasy feeling back in the forest.

"What are you doing here?" I tried to ask as pleasantly as I could, all the while trying not to stammer and give my fear away.

"Oh," she replied carelessly, but her eyes glittered, "just this and that." Her tone became, if possible, even more dangerous. I knew that the outcome of our encounter would not be good, and I tried glancing around for some means of escape. But I could only spot the forest in front of me, and Zira standing between me and the forest. If I stumbled backwards a few metres, I would fall off the edge of the cliff. That was why I tried not to back away, which was difficult seeing as Zira was closing in on me by the minute. "Tell me, little Prince Kopa," Zira continued, "what would the kingdom do without you as the heir to the throne?"

That was more than just a broad hint. I was getting increasingly aware of how much danger I was in. "Umm ... I don't know?" It came out as more of a question than an answer.

"Don't you want to know?" Zira enquired, cocking her head to one side and flexing her claws on the ground. Her tail wagged back and forth - an action that sent my heartbeat racing, because that predicted a pounce.

I wanted, more than anything, for Dad to come and rescue me, or for Jambo to realise that I was in danger. But nobody came to my aid. It seemed that the outer edge of the forest that I was facing and between me and which Zira was, was completely devoid of monkeys or any other swift-paced animals which could be capable of passing on a message to Dad or Mom or even Zazu.

"N-No, thanks. I, uh - it was n-nice meeting you," I stuttered. "I'm ... I'm going to go now."

"Oh, I don't think so, little Prince," Zira cooed mockingly.

"No, really, it's - er - time for my afternoon nap," I invented. I never napped in the afternoon, but this was the first thing that came to my mind. "My parents will be wondering where I am. G-G-Goodbye!" I exclaimed hastily, and made to escape by running diagonally forward and to my left side.

Zira blocked my way with a growl. Her sweet attitude had vanished. She was now openly dangerous. "I don't think so," she repeated. "I'm not going to let you get away so easily. Your evil father killed Scar, the rightful king!"

The words tumbled out of my mouth without volition, before I could stop them. "Actually, the hyenas killed Scar."

Zira's eyes gleamed. "I don't care ... It doesn't matter ... I still want my REVENGE!" She shouted the last word with so much energy that I was surprised no one could hear her. I suddenly wished she would yell some more so that _somebody_ would hear her and help me.

Suddenly I stopped cowering. I stood up straight. It was too clear what Zira wanted.

She wanted to kill me.

And I would not die without a fight.

"You can get your revenge through various means," I said. My voice didn't shake anymore. "Killing a defenseless cub is just sick."

"Nobody will know that I've killed you," Zira purred; she was back in her sweet-talking mode. Without warning, she raised her paw and took a swipe at me. As her paw came down my face, I could feel a searing pain and saw my reflection in a small puddle of water nearby. Blood was dripping from a long, jagged line across my face; it began above my left eyebrow and ended way past my right jaw. Enraged, I pounced at her. She was, unfortunately, not taken by surprise and her claws fastened around my neck, leeching there until I couldn't breathe properly.

"You evil -" I managed to gasp. Her grip on my neck tightened ... I could feel the strength go out of me ... the energy drained from me ... I sensed the life ebbing away from my limbs ...

With a final squeeze, Zira jerked her hand and threw me aside. I landed against the trunk of a tree. With a final lurch, I was aware of my body rolling over until more than half of it was lying on the hard, cold cliff ground and less than half was hanging over the edge of the cliff. My left eye had already closed and the vision in my right eye was blurring.

The last thing I heard was Jambo shouting, "KOPA! NO!" and the last thing I saw was the bottomless abyss nearing me as I fell off the cliff and into the vast, endless depths below.


End file.
